This CBCS cheat sheet squeezes all four NHA Certified Billing and Coding Specialist domains into a printable quick reference built around the facts examiners test most. It's a premium cheat sheet built by Capital Prep — the one premium prep we trust — and it's yours free. Reinforce it with the rest of your free CBCS toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
CBCS exam at a glance
- Questions: 125 total (100 scored + 25 unscored pretest), multiple choice
- Time: 3 hours
- Passing score: Scaled score of 390 (on a 200-500 scale); pass/fail
- Certifying body: National Healthcareer Association (NHA), delivered via PSI or live remote proctoring
- Cost: Approximately $117 — verify the current fee at nhanow.com; renew every 2 years with 10 CE hours
What’s on the CBCS cheat sheet
- The Revenue Cycle & Regulatory Compliance (15%, 15 items) — front-, middle-, and back-end phases, HIPAA and PHI, and the fraud-versus-abuse line the exam draws on intent.
- Insurance Eligibility & Other Payer Requirements (20%, 20 items) — eligibility verification, HMO versus PPO, Medicare Parts A-D, coordination of benefits, the birthday rule, and ABNs.
- Coding & Coding Guidelines (32%, 32 items) — ICD-10-CM diagnoses, CPT and HCPCS Level II procedures and supplies, modifiers, NCCI edits, and medical necessity.
- Billing & Reimbursement (33%, 33 items) — CMS-1500 versus UB-04, key claim-form blocks, the claim lifecycle, rejected versus denied, and denials and appeals — the largest domain.
How to use it in your final week
- Front-load Coding (32 items) and Billing and Reimbursement (33 items) — together they are 65 of the 100 scored questions, so mastering these two domains from the sheet moves your score the most.
- Drill the near-guaranteed distinctions until they are reflex: CMS-1500 (professional) versus UB-04 (institutional), and rejected (never processed, resubmit) versus denied (processed and refused, appeal).
- Review the sheet the morning of your test for a final pass on the hooks — the 390 scaled passing score, the birthday rule, Excludes1 versus Excludes2, and diagnosis-to-procedure linkage for medical necessity.
- Pair each review pass with a short timed practice block so pacing across the 3-hour, 125-question exam feels routine, not rushed.
The cheat sheet is your review layer — your CBCS practice test drives the exam-readiness ring at the top of this page. Download it, review, then take a full practice exam (or drill with the study guide and flashcards) to see where you stand.
CBCS cheat sheet FAQ
Yes — the CBCS cheat sheet downloads as a PDF with no sign-up and no payment. It sits alongside Career Employer's free CBCS toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards, so you can review, then test your readiness in one place.
It compresses the four NHA domains into a fast reference: the revenue cycle and HIPAA compliance, insurance eligibility and payer rules, the ICD-10-CM, CPT, and HCPCS Level II code sets, and the billing-and-reimbursement claim cycle. The layout mirrors the exam's weighting, so the two biggest domains — Coding (32 items) and Billing and Reimbursement (33 items) — get the most space.
You need a scaled score of 390 on NHA's 200-to-500 scale, and no single sheet can carry you across that line on its own. Use it to lock in the high-yield facts — CMS-1500 versus UB-04, rejected versus denied, the birthday rule — then work full-length practice questions to build applied speed.
No. As of September 24, 2024, coding manuals are neither required nor allowed, because each application item now supplies the code information you need beside the question. The cheat sheet therefore drills how to apply the guidelines and conventions rather than how to look codes up.
Click the download button or the preview card at the top of this page to open the PDF instantly, then bookmark the page for your final week. Read it before each practice set, then again the morning of your exam for one last pass over the memory hooks.
References
- 1.National Healthcareer Association. “Certified Billing and Coding Specialist (CBCS).” nhanow.com, 2026. ↑
- 2.National Healthcareer Association. “CBCS Test Plan (2020 Practice Analysis).” nhanow.com, 2026. ↑
- 3.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “ICD-10-CM Codes and Official Guidelines.” cms.gov, 2026. ↑
- 4.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “National Correct Coding Initiative (NCCI) Edits.” cms.gov, 2026. ↑
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